Snowden

"The modern battlefield is everywhere."

Filmology Rating: 2.37 out of 4

The NSA is up to no good or at least this is what Edward Snowden discovers. There are illegal surveillance techniques in place that violates all sorts of privacy laws and moral ethics. Snowden then leaks this information in the form of thousands of classified documents and distributes it to the press.

I saw this movie a week ago now but it has taken me a while to write this one because I haven’t known exactly what to say or how I felt. But alas I am finally ready to type my thoughts and hopefully capture your attention for a few minutes.
Now the reason it has been so hard for me to write this review is because there really were many good things about this film….. but also some bad as well. If I had to describe Snowden, I’d have to compare it to two different prior films. Snowden felt like a poor version of the Social Network (If you haven’t see that movie, you need to. It’s amazing). We have this interview going on and then flashbacks in time that bring us up to speed on everything that has happened to bring us to this point. However, the Social Network was far better directed with a lot more clear focus, and was overall just a much better film. My other thought was that Snowden felt like the bad Steve Jobs film (I’m referring to the Ashton Kutcher version and not the Michael Fassbender version). The first Steve Jobs movie had some good but a lot of bad while the next version improved on nearly every aspect and turned out spectacular. Snowden felt like that; this is the first version and soon down the line, we might get the movie that fixes the laws in this film and gives us the “Fassbender” version of Snowden.

So what was good about Snowden….. Well Joseph Gordon-Levitt was fantastic. He completely changed his body language, mannerisms, voice, look, everything. He really nailed the whole Snowden persona very well. He was accompanied by Shailene Woodley who is a fantastic actress (outside of the lackluster Divergent sequels). Along with a few others you'll know, the acting was just pretty good overall. It is Levitt who steals the show though. He carries the mystery, romance, drama, and the suspense that this film holds. Director Oliver Stone also has an interesting flair throughout the film as well. He attempts to do a lot of unique things and some of them work really well.... and then some of them miss. I feel a lot missed because he and the writers were trying to do to much. The reason the second Steve Jobs movie worked so well was because it was simple. This movie strives to be too complex and wanted to accomplish too much. Because of that the film drags on for way too long.

Now when I say those qualities, I mean that in a sense that all of those aspects were thrown into the movie. As mentioned earlier, I felt Snowden lacked direction and focus. My friend Tyler who I saw this film with (He also has a review page called Follower of Film, go check him out!) both really couldn’t figure out what genre this film landed in and what was the main direction it wanted to go in. Did it want to preach at you? Did it have political story? Was this a drama or a subtle thriller? It had a little aspect of each one of these things but failed to make a strong enough impact to really be good enough in any of those categories.

I'm really sorry about this review. I feel as though it was really scatter brained and all over the place. However that is how this movie left me; not really what knowing exactly what to think and what to talk about in this review. This review has taken me several days and several attempts to finish because I just don't know what to think exactly. I wanted to like it and I did like some of it…. but then there were those qualities that dragged the film down. All I’d have to say is that if you want to see it then see it, if not then I’d say rent it or skip it all together.

Rating: Rent It 

-Nick